Aufwiedersehen, München and Dachau!

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Today, Vivi had to work (what with it being a weekday and her being a paid employee and all), so I was on my own for exploring. Thanks to her late night directions, I found my way all the way to another town using the S-train (I think this translates as the S-bahn, but don't quote me on that). Thankfully while I was very ineptly trying to force the ticket machine into submission, there was a local to my left doing the exact same thing. I can proudly say that I figured it out first! Though, this was mostly due to watching Viv get tickets twice and vaguely remembering what the ticket was called.



Initial baptism by fire of ticket purchase complete, I arrived at Obermenzing and set off on the first leg of my many miles for the day. After about a 20ish minute walk, I managed (along with some serious assistance from Viv's iPhone GPS) to make it to the Botanical Garden. Ticket purchase there actually took almost as long as from the evil machine creature because I had to speak....to a live person. He resorted to english. If that tells you anything about the less than zero German I can speak effectively. The botanical gardens were beautiful; however, being INSIDE a greenhouse when it is roughly 90 degrees outside....is not the greatest idea in the world, to put it lightly. There was a fun display about the plants that make up the bases for most perfumes, complete with smell stations (the 5 year old in me was thrilled, and yes, i smelled ALL THE PERFUMES.). They also had some of the most hilarious blurbs I have ever read at a museum. For example, "I came, I saw, I perfumed myself, and I conquered." Head nod to veni vidi vici. After the perfumery, I wandered for quite some time through the maze of connected greenhouses - all gorgeous and well cared for (except the one dead fish....I think he had heat stroke - and sought relief from the heat in the evergreen exhibits. Then there was the connected Botanical Garden Park. Oh. My. God. It was perfect. There was shade in abundance and dappled sunlight dancing across the backs of squirrels dashing from tree to tree. I made a snake friend when I stopped on a shady bench for some quality time with my Kindle ("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was on the menu today).



At some point, when I realized I had successfully killed about 3 hours at the botanical garden, I began a winding, meandering stroll to the Schloß Nymphenburg. Now, this lovely bit of architecture was constructed as a palace for the Elector of Munich and his family. There appeared to be some discussion of a King and Queen living there at one point (again, all words in German, so any comprehension was cobbled together and is liable to be wrong). Let me tell you, the Europeans had the colored bedrooms and monochromatic style down LONG before the US was a thing. Also, question for my readership, how in the hell did people sleep on those square beds back in the day? There were no pillows. At all. The bed was a sky-high box. I don't get it. Anyway, the room with coromandel laquer screens on the wall was my favorite, even if it was one of the smallest rooms. There was something so beautifully out of place about it. Almost as if someone's entryway from China magically appeared in Germany.



Outside this lovely piece of (slightly) disjointed architecture was ANOTHER GARDEN. So much greenery. My American sensibilities were sent reeling. And so I spent at least an hour wandering the grounds and reveling in nature. The adventure part came in when I wanted to leave. With no map. Being directionally challenged. It took about 45 minutes longer than I expected. Oh, and I got to witness a group of Italian teens wandering the grounds and taking pictures. They went to take pictures by a lovely fountain (a nice choice of background), and suddenly reappeared WITH BANANAS. From nowhere. It was disconcerting. I did eventually find my way back to the Banhof and then to Viv's and then we went out for a fun Italian dinner (we were getting me prepped early). We both had tiramisu and an aperol spritzer for dessert and then came back, and here I am, about to pack to leave for ROME!!!





SOEXCITEDICANTHANDLEIT!

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